Unilaterally patterned neural activity of gynandromorphs, mosaic for a neurological mutant of Drosophila melanogaster.

A neurophysiological study of a behavioral phenotype caused by a sex-linked single gene mutation has been performed with gynandromorphs, mosaic for the mutant gene, Hyperkinetic(1P) (Hk(1P)), in Drosophila melanogaster. The male tissue of this gynandromorph is hemizygous for Hk(1P), while the female tissue is heterozygous. The characteristic neural activity caused by the Hk(1P) gene can be recorded only in the presumptive male region of the thoracic ganglion. Motor regions of one side were found to function independently of their counterparts in the opposite side of the thoracic ganglion and were unaffected by the genotype of other parts of the body. Thus, expression of the Hk(1P) gene is autonomous in the genetic sense, and each side of the ganglion is independent of the other side. Also, there is a high correlation between the external genotype and the genotype of underlying neural tissue of the thorax.